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Light rail celebrates 1st b-day with daily ridership over 23K

It took us 13 years to get there, and now it’s been a year since Seattle’s first light-rail line opened.

Monday marks the one-year anniversary of Sound Transit’s starter light-rail line, which opened last July. As it hit the one-year mark, ridership climbed to a new high with average weekday boardings now at 23,400, according to Sound Transit.

Total ridership is estimated to have reached 6 million since the 16-mile Central Link line opened. Ridership has growing steadily since the station at Sea-Tac Airport opened in December. Sound Transit initially predicted the number of weekday boardings to top 26,000 by year’s end and it keeps inching closer. As Zach Shaner at Seattle Transit Blog points out, June’s 7.5-percent growth in ridership is the sixth straight month of month-to-month growth of more than 5 percent.

The light rail also appears to be a big hit with sports fans headed to Mariners and Sounders games.

Now we just have to wait another five years for the 3-mile extension from Westlake Center to Capitol Hill and the University of Washington. Then another five years after that before trains reach Bellevue and Northgate.

After talking to riders for his piece last week in The Seattle Times, Mike Lindblom wrote that the novelty still hasn’t worn off.

And the number of car-vs-train accidents, Lindblom reports, have been relatively low. From the story:

“Despite four miles at surface through Rainier Valley, crash rates lag far below the possible 28 per year predicted by an early environmental statement. There have been eight minor-injury tangles with cars, three minor-injury brushes with pedestrians, a collision with a dropped safe and one trackway suicide at Sodo.”

Still, there have been a few kinks. Sound Transit had to regrind the tracks and install lubricators to deal with squeaky tracks near the Mount Baker station as trains exit the Beacon Hill tunnel. And the economy has stalled some plans for development along the tracks in the Rainier Valley.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.